The Price of Sacrifice

 

                Jonathan could not have had a better childhood, family life, and upbringing. Every need was provided for, he received the very best education, exposure to the highest quality entertainment including opera, symphonies, and ballet. Being the oldest in the family, he always strove to be kind, to be understanding, and to express empathy to those who struggled to make ends meet.

               His family grew and flourished from a long line of successful businessmen over the last three centuries. Any time he overheard his younger brothers speaking poorly of others, being judgmental of others, or condemning others for bad decisions, he interjected his thoughts, corrections, and the appropriate response to those who were in need.

               Jonathan graduated from university with a Ph.D in business, putting him in a position to take over leadership of the family company. His mind was sharp, precise, and sympathetic to others. Before taking over the role of CEO of the company, he worked through every department in the family business to understand the work, to understand his employees, and to know at the cellular level how their business performed and how to make improvements when necessary.

               After six months of work through each department, he made good connections with people in every department, understanding their struggles, understanding how regular people with standard income lived and their basic needs. He then transitioned into the office, to take on various roles in several different departments, still striving to understand more about the family business.

               His father eventually reached the age where he wanted to retire and hand over all of his responsibilities to Jonathan, knowing that his oldest son with a heart of gold and sympathy would continue to see success, help others, and thrive regardless of any detail or struggle that would arise. After three months in his role as CEO, he began a careful audit of all company business, all clients, and all categories in which they dabbled.

               After spending six weeks carefully picking through all business activity, he called a board meeting to be led by him in which he would announce a new direction for the company. He arrived to the meeting two minutes after it’s ten o’clock start time, to see the seven members of the board waiting for him, clearly agitated that he was late.

               “Thank you for coming, gentlemen,” he said, “I was intentionally late so I could see if you all would arrive on time and be prepared for a meeting to address certain details I have uncovered. I have spent the last six weeks looking through all of our activities, the fields in which we are involved and began to ask myself many questions about our activity.”

               Still standing in his position as head of the board meeting, he lifted his notepad and began explaining his rationale for the changes he was planning on implementing. “After all of my time of careful review, I see that we are involved in the medical field, in real estate, and providing military support for our government. Here is my decision, I strongly believe that we should pull out from our military involvement, as war does not bring life, love, or safety for our nation. We do not need to be the police for the entire globe.”

               An older gentleman at the far end of the conference table rose his hand, cleared his throat, and asked for permission to speak.

               “Yes, go ahead,” Jonathan answered, “share your thoughts on this.”

               “I am very familiar with the military support that we provide, and it makes up forty percent of our business,” he said, “if we walk away from this avenue of income, where do you suggest that we realign our time, money, and attention?”

               “That is a very good question,” Jonathan answered. “I would like to refocus our attention away from military action and toward providing economic support in real estate and in medical for the nations that are struggling with health issues around the globe. If we can strengthen and heal those around us, we will make the world a better place, rather than imposing more death and destruction with the weapons we provide.”

               “Very good,” the man said.

               “I would like to take a vote in this meeting,” Jonathan said, “if you agree with me, please vote yes, if you disagree, please vote no. We will do this by a show of hands. If you agree with me in making this change, raise your hand right now. Okay, very good, I am seeing that five of you agree with me. I can then assume that only two of you disagree. So, it is decided, this is the path we will take moving forward. I will send out details sometime today for a meeting to make these changes.”

               Two weeks later, the meeting was scheduled and took place, which brought about a radical change in multiple departments throughout the company. Two more years passed by as these changes were methodically implemented, bringing out a vast improvement in the quality of life in several countries around the globe.

               Jonathan invited his two younger brothers to a private meeting between the three of them to celebrate the radical changes and the overall improvements from their departure from military action. His brothers both heartily agreed with is decisions, encouraged him to continue making improvements, and helping those in need. After five more years of operating as CEO, Jonathan continued to challenge a few long-held ideas with the goal of making the world a better place through assistance to those in need.

               He entered his office, created a document that would declare his decision to step down as CEO, which would be filled by the next oldest son. He carefully crafted the piece, called in a secretary to proof read his work and deliver it to everyone who needed to be involved in this change. The secretary did an excellent job of reviewing his work, and had it sent to everyone who needed to know Jonathan’s plans.

               As he drew close to his thirty-fifth birthday, he remained unmarried and had no children. He sold his home, donated the money to a special fund at the family business which was to be used for his employees that had special needs, whether medical or otherwise. He handed over his responsibilities to his next oldest brother, encouraging him to continue on the path of bringing life, peace, and health to the world as much as possible.

               Jonathan bought a first-class plane ticket to Egypt, packing only simple, plain clothing, with which he would relocate to a cave relatively close to a men’s monastery in the Egyptian desert. He landed in Egypt, took a car to the local men’s monastery, introduced himself, and made a large donation to the monastery to help them take care of whatever needs they had. He communicated his plan of remaining in a distant cave and would be in regular contact with the Abbot of the monastery as the years passed.

               He filled his cave with only the basic necessities, emulating what the monks at the monastery were doing in their own cells. He no longer enjoyed the pleasures of wine, fine dining, comfortable clothing, and high-quality cigars. He planted a small garden for himself which would provide a simple and basic diet to keep him alive and healthy. He could feel himself growing older and weaker as the many years continued to crawl by.

               As he reached his seventy-fifth birthday, he continued his practice of visiting the Abbot once a month, and once a year would make a phone call to the family business to confirm that they were continuing the path he began so many years before. Each year he received the same message, that the family company continued to follow the path he started and was seeing great success and improvement in many nations around the world.

               Jonathan now owned nothing, enjoyed no creature comforts, and was thrilled to learn that their company was continuing to make the world a better place. Each time he interacted with the monastery Abbot, he was told the same message, “You may have accomplished much with your wealth and influence, but now that you are a monastic, your prayers will accomplish a great deal more.”

               Each morning Jonathan would rise before the sun, begin his morning prayer rule, and know that this new life was far more important and powerful than anything he did before he arrived in Egypt. When he reached his ninety-fifth birthday, he suddenly felt cold, ascended above and beyond his now lifeless corpse, to look down upon a body that he knew was his and was no longer animate. He felt a peace unlike anything he had ever before felt, knowing that he had taken an important turn in life to find himself drawing near to an eternity in the presence of holiness.